October 18th, 2007

Half Life 2 Episode 2

Here we are, following the adventures of “the Freeman” and Alyx Vance through the “hordes” of striders and “hunters”. There is a reason why I left this game out of the whole Black Box package right at the end - it’s “the cherry on the cake” really – I was very impressed with 3 main features: Alyx is one of the most “human” female characters I have ever seen in the many video games I have played so far; the physics and the dynamic have improved considerably while the enemies got even smarter at dodging bullets; the improvements of the gravitational gun are meant to help you in bringing down much easier the bigger enemies.

Game Trailer

The game story continues in the seven chapters, right from where it ended in the first Episode. This policy of releasing “episodes” has been considered more constructive so that the developers can have more time to tweak and improve the game engine the fans get to enjoy more action much sooner than in the previous releases.

The Freeman starts heads out towards the White Forest, with Alyx, to reach one of the largest human bases. The Combine aliens are working to open a massive portal so that they can bring some reinforcements. A very important part of the story is the burst transmission from the Combine that were trying to send it, and Alyx got a copy of it with the help of Gordon. As it contains very sensitive data about the Combine, their home world and how to control the huge portal, it is essential that it is delivered to the White Forest base so that the human resistance can use it to shut down the portal.

On the way to the base, Alyx is fatally wounded by a hunter-robot. While she still has a very weak thread of life in her body, a Vortigaunt picks her up and shows Gordon the way to an underground area, with lots of tunnels where some nasty bugs are waiting. After clearing the way and reaching the base, Gordon defends the troops from few random attacks of the Antlions (the big green bugs from Episode One).

Gameplay

Next there’s a mission in The Vortal Coil to get some larval extract so that the Vortigaunts’ team can use their powers to bring Alyx back to life. When you bring back the extract, you will meet the G-man again as a vision and he tells Alyx to say to her father the following words “prepare for unforeseen consequences” (this message is a bit silly in my opinion because it does not really make you expect to see funny things on the screen – it’s a marketing strategy from Valve to keep the gamers interested!). It’s like seeing the “Batman, The Beginning” movie – there are connections and references to the second chapter from the first Half Life game, so in a way we go back into the past, to “what was before”.

Alyx comes back to life and she brings back the smile on the gamer’s face first in Freeman Pontifex, where one of the Vortigaunts comes along and helps a lot in getting rid of the nasty bugs. Their priority is to find a vehicle. Be very careful on this level where you need to go to the bridge to get the car - you will have to be really fast and focused. After you manage to take the car to the other side, Alyx comes along in Riding Shotgun with Gordon towards the White Forest. Shall I say who was walking on the bridge when you were just starting the car-recovery mission? Yeah, you can guess – it’s the G-Man again – wow, doesn’t this guy have anything better to do than throw a wave of mystery every time he shows up?

On the way, they meet some hunters that need to be destroyed as fast as possible. There are Combine Advisors roaming around too and one of them almost kills Alyx and Gordon Under The Radar antennae. When they reach the base, they find Dog, Isaac Kleiner, Eli Vance and one of the former Black Mesa doctors, Dr. Arne Magnusson. The base is like a military weapons facility, and this is where the scientists have been building a big rocket meant to destroy the huge alien portal. There are again some references to the first Half Life game, namely the “Decay” chapter.

In the Our Mutual Friend chapter, Alyx delivers the message from Judith Mossman to Eli and then you will find out about a ship, The Borealis, an Aperture Science research vessel (remember the video game review of Half Life – Portal?), which is said to have disappeared a long time ago in a second, mysteriously. There are not any other hints about it, but in a later chat, Eli mentions the fact that he knows about the G-Man after Alyx came near him and delivered the message about the consequences. Next you will be given an assignment to defend key areas of the base against striders by using Dr. Magnusson’s explosive devices.

In the last chapter, T-Minus One, “the Freeman” doesn’t have much to do, but to push a few buttons and watch what happens in front of his eyes. He will be the one to press the “red button” that launches the big rocket which shuts down the portal. After the “fireworks”, Gordon goes with them towards the helicopter chamber. They were about to start their search for Judith Mossman, but they walk right into an ambush – Combine Advisors seize them and try to take out information from them. Eli gets killed and the end is how Alyx holds him in her arms, crying. There is no “next game” trailer, nothing, just a blunt and dark ending. However, from what my sources told me, there will be a third Episode of the adventure.

some of the best moments in the game

As a novelty in this game there’s the “car-drive”, the new two types of Antlions, the reworked game-engine that brings new capabilities of rendering intense detailed scenes and surfaces, with advanced pixel-shader effects.

The sound in the game was pretty much similar to the one in the Episode One, but I really liked the action music, even if it was not present all the time. I like it so much that I bought it! Oh yeah, how could I forget the warm and tender voice of Alyx, always being so enthusiastic around Gordon.

Game Ending

Digitainment mark: 10 out of 10 (the character of Alyx was pretty convincing with the realistic human emotions and reactions)

Developer/Publisher: Valve Software

Buy: $49 - the whole Orange Box package that comes also with Half-Life 2, Half life 2 Episode One, Portal and Team Fortress 2